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You write a procedure that looks at each digit and chooses the words that describe the digit in that position. Usually you will have a few arrays that will hold the various words such as "nine hundred", "ninety" and "nine".
So from your example value 999, your program would find that the first significant digit was the 9 in the hundreds position. It could then retrieve the ninth value from the array for hundreds. That value might be "nine hundred". Your program moves that string to the output string.
The program then moves to the next position -- the tens. It finds a 9, so it retrieves the ninth entry from the array for tens -- "ninety". It concatenates that to the value already in the output string to get a new value -- "nine hundred ninety".
Overall, your program simply goes through the digits and selects the appropriate strings for all of the parts. The strings get concatenated together.
You can work left-to-right and build the output string as you go along. Or you can go through the digits (in either direction) and build a list of words that you concatenate together after processing all of the digits. Or you can go through the digits (in either direction) and simply set all the array indexes -- string the array elements together after finishing the digits. Or...
Well, there are lots of possible ways, probably as many ways as there are people who might read this item. The "right" way depends on how perfect the result must be according to some specified requirement, how efficient it needs to be, how important the precise details such as hyphenation are, whether decimal positions are involved... whether you're coding in RPG II or Smalltalk or other language...
This is "introductory"-level concepts stuff. Are you learning programming? Lots of examples of coding are out on the internet.
Tom
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Here is a Service Program that you can use, but as Tom wrote there are tons of examples out on the Internet.
// ************************************************************** // = Service program... NbrToWords = // = Description....... Service program to convert a number = // = to words = // = = // = CrtRPGMod Module( YourLib/NbrToWords ) + = // = SrcFile( YourLib/YourSrcFile ) = // = CrtSrvPgm SrvPgm( YourLib/NbrToWords ) + = // = Export( *All ) + = // = ActGrp( *Caller ) = // ============================================================= H NoMain // ------------------------------------------------------------- // - Procedure prototypes - // ------------------------------------------------------------- D CvtNbrToWords PR 200 D 15 0 Value // ------------------------------------------------------------- // - Global variables - // ------------------------------------------------------------- D MaxGrps C 5 D Words S 13 Dim( 99 ) D CtData D Grps S 8 Dim( MaxGrps ) D CtData // ============================================================= // = Procedure: CvtNbrToWords = // = Description: Convert number to words = // ============================================================= P CvtNbrToWords B Export // ------------------------------------------------------------- // - Procedure interface - // ------------------------------------------------------------- D CvtNbrToWords PI 200 D Nbr 15 0 Value // ------------------------------------------------------------- // - Variable declarations - // ------------------------------------------------------------- D AlphaNbr S 15 D WorkFld DS D Work3 3 D Work2 2 Overlay( Work3 : 2 ) D Work1 1 Overlay( Work3 : 1 ) D Count S 5I 0 D Pos S 5I 0 D Idx S 5I 0 D RtnWords S 200 Inz( *Blank ) // ------------------------------------------------------------- // - Convert number to words - // ------------------------------------------------------------- /Free Select; When Nbr = *Zero; RtnWords = 'zero'; Other If Nbr < *Zero; RtnWords = 'negative'; Nbr = Nbr * -1; EndIf; AlphaNbr = Nbr; Do MaxGrps Count; Pos = ( Count * 3 ) - 2; Work3 = %Subst( AlphaNbr : Pos : 3 ); If Work3 <> '000'; If Work1 <> '0'; Clear Idx; Idx = Work1; RtnWords = %TrimR( RtnWords ) + ' ' + %TrimR( Words( Idx ) ) + ' hundred'; EndIf; If Work2 <> '00'; Clear Idx; Idx = Work2; RtnWords = %TrimR( RtnWords ) + ' ' + %TrimR( Words( Idx ) ); EndIf; RtnWords = %TrimR( RtnWords ) + ' ' + %TrimR( Grps( Count ) ); EndIf; EndDo; EndSl; RtnWords = %Trim( RtnWords ); Return RtnWords; P CvtNbrToWords E /End-free ** CtData Words one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty twenty-one twenty-two twenty-three twenty-four twenty-five twenty-six twenty-seven twenty-eight twenty-nine thirty thirty-one thirty-two thirty-three thirty-four thirty-five thirty-six thirty-seven thirty-eight thirty-nine forty forty-one forty-two forty-three forty-four forty-five forty-six forty-seven forty-eight forty-nine fifty fifty-one fifty-two fifty-three fifty-four fifty-five fifty-six fifty-seven fifty-eight fifty-nine sixty sixty-one sixty-two sixty-three sixty-four sixty-five sixty-six sixty-seven sixty-eight sixty-nine seventy seventy-one seventy-two seventy-three seventy-four seventy-five seventy-six seventy-seven seventy-eight seventy-nine eighty eighty-one eighty-two eighty-three eighty-four eighty-five eighty-six eighty-seven eighty-eight eighty-nine ninety ninety-one ninety-two ninety-three ninety-four ninety-five ninety-six ninety-seven ninety-eight ninety-nine ** CtData Grps trillion billion million thousandyou find a program … there are quite a few available … that already does this …
there’s no reason to re-invent the wheel …
except for course credit ASWDEVELOPER
